Page 181 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“It’s alright, you’re safe now,” I whisper. “You’ll never have to be here again.”

“I didn’t want to.” Lilac pulls away from me and looks over my shoulder. I follow her line of sight to the dead prisoners. “They made me,” her voice cracks with tears.

I grab her shoulders and force her eyes back to me. “Then you’re stronger now.” It’s like Azaire is whispering in my ear when I say, “Don’t let them take more of you than they already have.”

Does she know he’s gone?

She sucks on her bottom lip and nods.

“We have to run,” I say. We’re eight stories from the foramen room and three stories below sea level. We only have to make it to a reflective surface. “I promise you, Lilac, you’ll never have to do what they asked of you again.”

“How can you promise me anything?” she croaks. “When you can’t even say it of yourself.”

“It was different for me.” I hold my hand to hers. “Not anymore.” I take off immediately when she puts her hand in mine. We barely make it one story up when six guards block our path.

Lilac trembles.

“Prince Lucian,” a guard says. “Queen Lusia asks of you.”

“Close your eyes,” I whisper for her ears only. “It’s going to be alright.” We’re surrounded by shadows, all of us fair game, so when I begin to choke the guard who spoke, the other begins to choke me.

But I am stronger, proving this fact as I pull his shadows from my throat and wrap them around my chest like armor. I grab my merai blade.

I let go of one guard when he’s lost consciousness, and the other three already have their weapons drawn. I smile, take my hand out of Lilac’s, and shield her while hoping I’ll be able to maintain it. “I’ve never been above death,” I say. “Choose wisely.”

One swings and I duck, slicing open his stomach and raising my blade again to block the next one, who tries to dole out a life-threatening swing. His sword clatters to the floor, and from two steps below, I kick him in the stomach. There’s a whack when his head collides with the cobblestone wall, and blood is left behind when he falls.

I block a swing to my left and one to my right. I tie one guard in shadows and my head is yanked back, shadows pulling on my hair and exposing my throat.

They won’t kill me, I know that, but the sword still comes for my throat at the exact position needed to take my head. That is, until I regain control of my neck. The last two guards are thrown to the wall of the stairwell, falling unconscious with a growing puddle of blood below their heads.

I turn to Lilac, my shadows no longer shielding her and her eyebrows creased together sternly. Her hands are raised, fingers contorted, and shadows wrap her arms like she is a master.

It’s the first time I’ve seen anything like it from my sister.

The man with the sliced-open stomach holds his torso. Perhaps if someone finds them soon enough, he will survive. We run up the steps, stopping when we reach the ground floor. The light of day shocks my system.

I can’t imagine how it must feel for Lilac; how long she’s been down in the dungeon.

Lusia and Labyrinth step in front of us with a multitude of guards. That’s good—that means they think we’re strong enough to take them now.

Lusia flicks her wrist and Lilac straightens up immediately, her head tipping back while she wheezes. Black shadows exit from her mouth in a spiral. I chuck my merai blade at Lusia’s chest like an axe.

It stops midair and clatters to the floor with dissipating shadows. Every guard has a sword raised, and one hovers right over my chest.

I already have my previously fallen blade to Lusia’s throat.

Looking at the guards, I say, “Kill me and your queen dies.”

The sword pierces my skin, ripping into my heart.

Shadows pull from every one of the guards’ eyes and mouths, all coming toward me. The sword at my chest falls with a small amount of blood. But the shadows go into Lilac—not me—when every guard falls. She steps in front of me and says, “No one kills my brother.”

Lusia laughs. “My daughter,” she says in pride. Oh, no. “He is not your brother.” Lilac’s shoulders falter so slightly it’s almost imperceivable. “He’s barely even your cousin with the way his parents treated us.”

I put my hand on Lilac’s shoulder. “What is she talking about?” she whispers for me only.

“That’s it then?” I say, stepping in front of my sister. “She can’t know until you allow it? Or is this for theatrics?” And she plans on wiping Lilac’s memory, again.

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